A number of area restaurants and vendors shut down because of major health code violations

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When you go to a swanky D.C. restaurant, you expect a power lunch, a delicious dinner and perhaps a celebrity citing. What you don't expect is old crab cakes and dirty dishes. But that's what health inspectors found at hundreds of restaurants in the D.C. area, according to the Washington Examiner.

Some of the worst violators were swanky establishments like Georgia Brown's, which tied with Gordon Biersch Brewery for the most critical health code violations (11) during one recent inspection, the Examiner reported. The Palm had 10, as did Toscana.

The information comes from health department records obtained by the paper. At Georgia Brown's, it was expired gravy and water temperatures not hot enough for dishwashing. And at Gordon Biersch, it was a cook preparing desserts with cuts/sores on his fingers, employees cleaning dining utensils and dishes with dirty rags between servings and using the same pair of tongs to handle cooked and raw food, the Examiner reported.

The Examiner said health inspectors found violations at 1,900 area restaurants and food vendors over a three-month period, from November 1 to February 1. They cited everything from slime-covered water spigots to rat infestations.

The president and chief executive officer of Palm Restaurant Group told the Examiner that he is alarmed by the violations and that the company takes food safety very seriously. Managers at these restaurants said the health code issues have been resolved and they received a clean bill of health at follow-up inspections.